I Hear, See and Do

A Sharing about Church and Politics

by Aru student community

‘I hear then I forget, I see then I remember, I do then I understand'. This is an old saying from Confucius. It becomes a strong motivation for someone that learning is not enough just for listening but it needs to  observe and practice what has been learned. When a person experiences his own learning process, he/she will understand.

The same thing happened in ‘Church and Politics’ training held by Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta on February 15-17, 2019 with a theme 'Young, Millennials and Political Literate', in which the participants gained new enlightenment and understanding of church history and political dynamics, how young Christians should behave in the context of today's politics. They were encouraged not only to be listeners but also to share their experiences with others, either personal or group.

One group of students from Aru islands initiated a 'sharing' with youth of Gereja Sahabat Indonesia (GSI) in Condongcatur on Friday, March 1, 2019. In this session Natasya Derman, who study Indonesian Language and Literature Education in UST, began the discussion by delivering her experiences when participating in Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta through its training, discussion and local exposure. Next, she invited participants to write their perceptions about politics. They wrote various opinions, such as power, corruption, ignorance and dirty. It is the same as what she has experienced before who did not know even apathy towards politics, but in the training she found enlightenment, it turned out that the essence of politics was not bad, dirty and lust of power, but actions to bring prosperity. The negative 'image' of politics is caused by individuals who have political power to commit corruption, collusion and abuse of authority. Therefore, we are called to improve the situation, one of which is participating in general elections to determine the next leader of this nation.

Related with church and political world, Lenora Nada, an Informatics student of Immanuel Christian University shared a topic on church interacted with political world. The early church was separated from political power, even considered a threat for the government. But even though the early church was hampered and persecuted, the church members played many roles among the community at that time because they were considered good people, had strong spirituality and were trustworthy. Inevitably the authorities at that time accommodated them to take part in the community. The development of Christianity is growing widespread. The peak was when Christianity became a state religion in the era of Constantine. People converted to be Christians because they wanted to get rights to be Roman citizens. The church and political power merged and tended to abuse of power both church and political leaders. The Church no longer voiced its struggle on injustice, poverty and oppression, but instead perpetuated power. Finally church reformation busted out and then church positioned itself outside of political power, but it brings impact that church members afraid talking about politics.

Trustha Rembaka, the coordinator of Stube-HEMAT Yogyakarta, who accompanied the group, reminded participants as citizens to take part in general election by giving vote in the election. He also helped participants to check whether their names were registered already as voters or not. At the end of the session, Tasya again revealed that young people should reflect on the values of Christianity and support the government actively to bring social welfare. (Natasya Derman).